The Burned-Over District is a term used by some to describe the region of Western New York in the historical period of 1800-1850. It is also sometimes called the Second Great Awakening with a combination of religious, social and political elements.

After all this, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania could not have been a more welcome place of rest. We stumbled upon the lovely Quiet Haven Motel, the only such place I've stayed at in years owned and operated by an American family. Not Amish, but at least they didn't accept credit cards, not that I would have used one if given the choice. We were there on the Sabbath, so not much was open, but the buggies where out and about enjoying the day of rest. From there, we headed north through the onion-domed hills of the coal-mining central region of the state with its immigrant members of the Russian Orthodox Church and Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church to the former town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, whose "population has dwindled from over 1,000 residents in 1981 to 12 in 2005, as a result of a mine fire burning beneath the borough since 1962," and has been literally leveled by eminent domain.